"As a composer Vinny Golia (born March 1, 1946) fuses the rich heritage of Jazz, contemporary classical and world music into his own unique compositions. Also a bandleader, Golia has presented his music to concert audiences in Europe, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the United States in ensembles varying dramatically in size and instrumentation. Mr. Golia has won numerous awards as a composer, including grants from The National Endowment of the Arts, The Lila Wallace Commissioning Program, The California Arts Council, Meet the Composer,Clausen Foundation of the Arts, Funds for U.S. Artists and the American Composers Forum. In 1982 he created the on-going 50 piece Vinny Golia Large Ensemble to perform his compositions for chamber orchestra and jazz ensembles.

A multi-woodwind performer, Vinny's recordings have been consistently picked by critics and readers of music journals for their yearly "ten best" lists. In 1990 he was the winner of the Jazz Times TDWR award for Bass Saxophone. In 1998 he ranked 1st in the Cadence Magazine Writers & Readers Poll and has continually placed in the Downbeat Critic's Poll for Baritone & Soprano Saxophone. In 1999 Vinny won the LA Weekly's Award for "Best Jazz Musician". Jazziz Magazine has also named him as one of the 100 people who have influenced the course of Jazz in our Century. In 2006 The Jazz Journalists Association honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Golia has also contributed original compositions and scores to Ballet and Modern Dance works, video, theatrical productions, and film. As an educator Vinny has lectured on music & painting composition, improvisation, Jazz History, The History of Music in Film, CD & record manufacturing and self-production throughout the United States, Europe, Mexico, New Zealand and Canada. He currently teaches at California Institute of the Arts. In 1998 Golia was appointed Regent's Lecturer at the University of California at San Diego. In 2009 Vinny Golia was appointed the first holder of the Michel Colombier Performer Composer Chair at Cal Arts.

Vinny has been a featured performer with Anthony Braxton, Henry Grimes, John Carter, Bobby Bradford, Joelle Leandre, Leo Smith, Horace Tapscott, John Zorn, Tim Berne, Bertram Turetzky, George Lewis, Barre Phillips, The Rova Saxophone Quartet, Patti Smith, Harry "the Hipster" Gibson, Eugene Chadburne, Kevin Ayers, Peter Kowald, John Bergamo, George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band, Misha Mengelberg, Han Bennick, Lydia Lunch, Harry Sparrney and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra amongst many others."

"A veteran of the Chicago music scene, Santa Cruz based drummer/singer John Hanrahan has made a strong and versatile impression in jam bands throughout the country as well as the project with his quartet performing and releasing in 2016, John Coltrane's A Love Supreme at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center.

Currently the John Hanrahan Quartet has been performing a variety of tributes around the Bay Area to great jazz musicians of the 60's, including John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, and Miles Davis projects. The band was showcased at SFJAZZ in September, Yoshi's in January, Kuumbwa Jazz Center in July, and will be in Chicago performing at The Jazz Showcase in April. The John Hanrahan Quartet has been playing together in Chicago and around the globe for over 20 years. Central Coast jazz fans will also recognize the John Hanrahan Quartet from their breakout performance at the 2014 Monterey Jazz Festival, where they paid tribute to Coltrane's 'A Love Supreme', widely considered one of the greatest jazz recordings of all time.

Hanrahan can also be found performing throughout the Bay Area with Freestone Peaches, Stu Allen & Mars Hotel, Matt Hartle, and Colorado's own Shakedown Street."

"Henry Kaiser (born September 19, 1952) is an American guitarist and composer, known as an idiosyncratic soloist, a sideman, an ethnomusicologist, and a film score composer. Recording and performing prolifically in many styles of music, Kaiser is a fixture on the San Francisco Bay Area music scene. He is considered a member of the "second generation" of American free improvisers. He is married to Canadian artist Brandy Gale.

In 1977, Kaiser founded Metalanguage Records with Larry Ochs (Rova Saxophone Quartet) and Greg Goodman. In 1979 he recorded With Friends Like These with Fred Frith, a collaboration that lasted for over 20 years. In 1983 they recorded Who Needs Enemies, and in 1987 the compilation album With Enemies Like These, Who Needs Friends? They joined with fellow experimental musicians John French, and English folk-rocker Richard Thompson to form French Frith Kaiser Thompson for two eclectic albums, Live, Love, Larf & Loaf (1987) and Invisible Means (1990). In 1999 Frith and Kaiser released Friends and Enemies, a compilation of their two Metalanguage albums along with additional material from 1984 and 1999.

In 1991, Kaiser went to Madagascar with guitarist David Lindley. They recorded roots music with Malagasy musicians and discovered music that, he says, "changed us radically and permanently". Three volumes of this music were released by Shanachie under the title A World Out of Time. In 1994 he made a similar trip to Norway, again with Lindley, recording music that was released as Sweet Sunny North (2 volumes, 1994 and 1996).

Since 1998, Kaiser has been collaborating with trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith in the "Yo Miles!" project, releasing a series of tributes to Miles Davis's 1970s electric music. This shifting aggregation has included musicians from the worlds of rock (guitarists Nels Cline, Mike Keneally and Chris Muir, drummer Steve Smith), jazz (saxophonists Greg Osby and John Tchicai), avant-garde (keyboardist John Medeski, guitarist Elliott Sharp), and Indian classical music (tabla player Zakir Hussain).

Kaiser has appeared on more than 250 albums and scored dozens of TV shows and films, including Werner Herzog's Encounters at the End of the World (2007). He was given a Grammy Award for his work on the Beautiful Dreamer tribute to Stephen Foster.

In 2001, Kaiser spent two and a half months in Antarctica on a National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists and Writers Program grant. He has subsequently returned for nine more visits to work as a research diver. His underwater camera work was featured in two Herzog films, The Wild Blue Yonder (2005) and Encounters at the End of the World (2007), which he also produced, and for which he and Lindley composed the score. Kaiser served as music producer for Herzog's Grizzly Man (2005). He was nominated for an Academy Award for his work as a producer on Encounters at the End of the World."

:Wayne Peet: b. 6 December 1954, Dallas, Texas, USA. As a small child Peet took piano lessons, and while at college developed an interest in the more advanced forms of jazz then being played, including the music of the Art Ensemble Of Chicago and Anthony Braxton, only later backtracking to consolidate his understanding of the genre. He formed a duo with trombonist John Rapson, and sometimes both young men doubled on the other's instrument. The group developed a localized, largely on-campus reputation. Some years later, in 1994, Peet played on the Dances Orations session led by Rapson, which also featured Braxton. He worked in various formats with Vinny Golia from the mid-80s; a trio (Worldwide & Portable), quintet (Regards From Norma Desmond), and the Large Ensemble (Decennium Dans Axlan and The Other Bridge (Oakland 1999)). Closer to post-bop mainstream, in 1988 Peet recorded with Kim Richmond (Looking In Looking Out). By the late 90s, Peet was more often to be heard playing organ, sometimes the Hammond B3 but usually the Hammond-Suzuki XB2. He recorded a tribute to Larry Young and later recorded with former Shadowfax guitarist G.E. Stinson. An excellent player of piano and organ, by the new millennium Peet's skills were gradually making his name internationally known."

"Michael David Watt (born December 20, 1957) is an American bassist, vocalist and songwriter.

He is best known for co-founding and playing bass guitar for the rock bands Minutemen, Dos, and Firehose. He is also the frontman for the supergroup Big Walnuts Yonder, a member of the art rock group Banyan and involved with several other musical projects. From 2003 until 2013, he was the bass guitarist for The Stooges.

Watt has been called "one of the greatest bassists on the planet." CMJ New Music called Watt a "seminal post-punk bass player." Readers of NME voted Mike Watt one of the "40 Greatest Bassists Of All Time" and LA Weekly awarded him the number six spot in "The 20 Best Bassists of All Time."

In November 2008, Watt received the Bass Player Magazine lifetime achievement award, presented by Flea."-Wikipedia

"Bob Moses (born January 28, 1948) is an American jazz drummer.

Moses played with Roland Kirk in 1964-65 while he was still a teenager. In 1966 he and Larry Coryell formed The Free Spirits, a jazz fusion ensemble, and from 1967 to 1969 he played in Gary Burton's quartet. He also recorded with Burton in the 1970s, in addition to work with Dave Liebman/Open Sky, Pat Metheny, Mike Gibbs, Hal Galper, Gil Goldstein, Steve Swallow, Steve Kuhn/Sheila Jordan (from 1979 to 1982), George Gruntz, and Emily Remler (from 1983 to 1984). In the early 1970s he was a member of Compost with Harold Vick, Jumma Santos, Jack Gregg (fr) and Jack DeJohnette.

His first session as a leader was in 1968, released as the record Love Animal. His second session as a leader was in 1973 with the release of Bittersuite in the Ozone. his records for Gramavision in the 1980s were critically acclaimed.

He is also the author of the drum method book Drum Wisdom.

Moses currently performs alongside John Lockwood, Don Pate, and John Medeski with noted guitarist Tisziji Muñoz and teaches at New England Conservatory."